Rare! A notice from Bank of Communications totaling 155 trillion appears to have an error; the Secretary previously received a 5A rating

Ask AI · Why did the Secretary of the Board receive a 5A rating yet still publish announcement with basic mistakes?

“Bank of Communications has issued a correction announcement. The previously released 2025 profit distribution plan contained a textual error. As one of the six state-owned banks with total assets exceeding 15 trillion, it is truly rare for the announcement to contain a textual error.”

On March 31, Bank of Communications released a correction announcement. It turned out that in the previously released 2025 profit distribution plan, what should have been a cash distribution of 3.247 yuan per 10 shares was mistakenly written as 3.247 yuan per share.

Under this plan, Bank of Communications’ 2025 dividend amount will reach 286.9 billion yuan! Meanwhile, in 2025, Bank of Communications’ net profit was only 95.6223 billion yuan.

A one-character difference almost caused Bank of Communications to go “bankrupt.”

Regarding this controversy, Bank of Communications attributed the problem to the “insufficient rigor in proofreading” that led to the textual error, and expressed a sincere apology to investors.

The Secretary of the Board of a listed company is the core reviewer of information disclosure and needs to lead relevant departments to review the compliance and accuracy of announcement content.

The Secretary of the Board of Bank of Communications is He Zhaobin, 56 years old. In 2025, his total pre-tax compensation was 878,000 yuan. He has previously received honors including the “5A rating for the performance evaluation of the Secretary of the Board of listed companies in 2025,” as well as honors such as “Outstanding Secretary of the Board of Listed Companies.”

In 2025, Bank of Communications’ operating income was 265.071 billion yuan, up 2.02%. Of this, net interest income was 173.075 billion yuan, up 1.91%, and net fee and commission income was 38.183 billion yuan, up 3.44%. In 2025, Bank of Communications’ net profit attributable to shareholders was 95.622 billion yuan, up 2.18%.

By the end of 2025, Bank of Communications’ total assets were 15.54 trillion yuan, up 4.35%. Total loans were 9.12 trillion yuan, up 6.64%.

Bank of Communications 2025 annual report

Bank of Communications’ average return on total assets in 2025 was 0.63%, down 0.02 percentage points from 2024. Net interest yield was 1.2%, down 0.07 percentage points. The allowance coverage ratio was 208.38%, up 6.44 percentage points.

For all of 2025, Bank of Communications’ share price rose by only 2 cents, an increase of 0.28%. It ranked last among the six state-owned banks. Since the beginning of this year, Bank of Communications’ share price has fallen along with the broader market, with a decline of 3.45%.

On April 19, 2024, when Hangzhou Bank announced its 2023 profit distribution plan, it also made a fatal typo.

In the bank’s “Key Highlights” section of the announcement, the per-share distribution ratio was written as “cash dividends of RMB 5.20 per share (including tax),” but in the details of the “Profit Distribution Plan” below, it was again written as “cash dividends of RMB 5.20 per 10 shares (including tax).”

Subsequently, the bank quickly issued a correction announcement confirming that the cash dividend per share should be 0.52 yuan (including tax), i.e., 5.20 yuan per 10 shares.

Mao Xiahong, then vice president and Secretary of the Board of Hangzhou Bank, submitted a resignation letter on July 15, 2024—about three months after the incident—no longer serving as vice president and Secretary of the Board, and instead becoming a senior expert at Hangzhou Bank.